Chapter 3: A Temporary Home

[Third Person Pov]

[6th November, 17:39]

"Kei..."

"Kiyotaka..."

Both of them were in awkward silence. Ayanokoji didn't know what to say to Kei, and Kei didn't know what to say to him either.

The prior announcement that she and the remaining 49.787 players would be trapped inside this game was a horrific message.

She didn't precisely know what to do. It was a complete shock for her.

Should she ask her teacher, Chabashira-sensei? Could she even do anything currently? No – neither the teachers nor anyone else could do anything.

It was impossible. From this moment onwards, it was a matter of survival of the strongest. She knew Kiyotaka, her boyfriend, definitely had an idea how to solve their problems, such as financial problems for the time being or the problem of the housing.

It was just how Kiyotaka was, in her opinion. He always had that clear mindset, what to do next.

Even now, he wasn't different.

"We should search for a temporary home for now. Let's look, whether we can rent something like an apartment, in the <City of The Beginnings>."

"An apartment?!" Kei frowned. "Aren't they like super expensive. Isn't it far easier to rent a place in the inn?"

"No, not really. I'd like to have an actual home that isn't overpopulated by a whole amount of people who might drink or constantly complain about their life. I am someone who likes to enjoy his sleep, after all. Besides... I don't really want to suddenly run into one of our classmates in one of the inn's and forced to help them, finding a solution. Right now, everyone is on their own. They might not realize it yet, but sooner or later, they will."

Ayanokoji answered, but he wasn't actually very honest to Kei.

He simply wanted a place that isn't quite small, a bit luxurious, decorated in a medieval style, with a kitchen, one or two bedrooms, and a place he could temporarily call his home, coming to rest, shower, or simply laze around.

He definitely couldn't buy an apartment, but he definitely should be able to rent it. The cost of one night for one person in an Inn was about 50 Cor's.

In one month, that would make about 1500 Cor's. It wasn't expensive at all for him.

He had the money, but he desired something luxurious, especially since it was a plain place.

But he'd definitely choose a place that is near the forest, since these Monsters there seem to be the highest ones.

He didn't know of any further high-ranking monsters, so his choices were limited.

The inn's are majorly located far away from the direction of the forest, which was another upside-down point for him.

An apartment in an area nearby, where he would only take with his current Stats at least 25 minutes to the forest; that was what he wanted.

"Well, do you even have that amount of money?" Kei asked.

"I mean, if the price is reasonable within five thousand Cor's, or a bit more or less, there shouldn't be any problems occurring regarding the housing."

Ayanokoji replied.

"That much?! How long did you farm, Kiyotaka?" she asked.

"Hmm... I guess it should be around three hours and fifty-four minutes if you don't count the time I took for the way and just killed monsters purely."

Ayanokoji replied casually.

"You killed Monster's that long? Hahaha, unbelievable..." Kei frowned upon her boyfriend's excessive behavior of farming.

"It's not that long, I still have a long way to go. For now, let's solve the issue with the housing quickly." He added.

"Sure," Kei replied, trying to forget her worries about the game.

It wasn't really possible, but at the least, she had Kiyotaka, her doting boyfriend, that was protecting her.

After ten's of minutes of walking, they arrived at the desired location.

There weren't any players around here since most of them probably went immediately to kill Monsters or were having a mental attack from all the stress, pressure, and fear.

Nevertheless, that didn't matter to him at all. He wanted now to simply rent a house and kill monsters.

Ayanokoji, walking through the streets, saw on one of these buildings a sales and rent logo on it. It was a beautiful building that happened to be a two-story building.

There were, in fact, on the opposite site also two other buildings that had a sales or rent logo on them, but they weren't two-story buildings.

Ayanokoji, after having decided, expressed his opinion. "Let's take the two-story apartment. It seems to have more space."

"Sure, I just wanted to say the same thing. In comparison to the other ones, this one really is by far more beautiful," answered Kei, in a happy and excited tone.

"Well, I'm renting it then," Ayanokoji approached the building, but he didn't know what to do.

Was he supposed to knock, and then negotiate with the NPC in charge of the building for a potential price, or was the process entirely different?

He wasn't aware at all of how that worked. He simply tried on knocking on the door so that hopefully something happened.

All of a sudden, an interface appeared right in front of his eyes.

Kei approached him and looked on the interface in disbelief. "5.740 Cor's! Isn't that too much?"

Ayanokoji responded with his stoic voice. "I can afford it. There's no problem with the budget, don't worry," he said, reassuring her.

Ayanokoji was in slight disbelief about the price of buying this two-story building.

It was 950.000 Cor's, which was arguably too much. He expected much, but not that much.

Well, with that, his dreams faded away from buying that building in the near future.

[Do you want to rent this building]

[Yes] [No]

'Yes,' Ayanokoji thought, confirming the settlement.

[Cor: 19.315] - [5.740]

[Cor: 13.575]

[Time period: One Month, 6th of December]

Before Ayanokoji opened the door, he settled that Kei would have the permission to enter the apartment through the menu.

"Kei, you can open the doorknob," Ayanokoji said.

She simply nodded.

"Woah, look at all these furniture's. I can't believe that we are living here."

"Yeah, for now, it's about a month. It should be enough until the first, second, and third floors are discovered and fought. I'm sure on other floors there should be other cities, with far beautiful apartments."

"I guess so. Shall we discover everything here, Kiyotaka?"

"Sure," he answered.

For now, both of them looked at the rooms on the first floor. Inclusive the kitchen and living room, there was a large bathroom, including a shower and toilet, and a large dining table that stretched through a wide length.

Since it was a two-story building, there was another floor, the second floor. On the second floor, there were three bedrooms and one bathroom.

Since, unlike the first floor, there was a rooftop that was limiting the space, there wasn't as much space as the first floor.

Well, it was designed in a medieval styled style, but there were also fridges and other things that didn't suit in this supposedly area. It was, to the most part, medieval designed, yet there were several instances with modern design in the apartment.

It didn't matter to him that much, but he had to admit it definitely looked good.

In comparison to an Inn, where you only have 6 square feet, this was ten times better.

As for the terms of the price, he guessed since it's the beginning of the game, and no one searched actively for a housing, the price obviously was a bit low.

If he had to guess, within two or three days, the rent for this house would definitely be around 7.000 - 14.000 Cor, if not more.

As for the windows on the first floor, no matter what you did, you couldn't see the person's inside.

It definitely was great that no one could interrupt his and Kei's privacy. There was another thing that stood out, the lock system.

Nobody is able to enter the house, aside from him and Kei. If anyone could, they would need his or her permission to do so.

Now that he had seen everything, he'd go slaughtering monsters inside the forest again. But before he'd do so, he talked with Kei.

"Kei, I'll go back on killing Monsters again. I can't let this opportunity to level up pass since after tomorrow, leveling up will be much harder. I'd recommend you to stay here, inside the <City of The Beginnings>, but tomorrow, I could teach you how to kill Monsters, if you'd like."

"Yeah, sure. I don't think that I could kill alone Monster's. Alone, the thought brings me shivers. I'm so pathetic, aren't I?" she exclaimed, with a depriving smile.

"No, not at all. There are many people out there like you who are scared of this situation. It's just the basic human instinct when danger lies, to back away. So don't worry too much, Kei."

"Okay..." exclaimed Kei embarrassingly because her stomach suddenly was growling.

Ayanokoji forgot this completely. While they are all trapped here, he assumed that since the hospital naturally will provide them with IV once they arrive, there shouldn't be any problems with feeling hungry at all during the game.

Yet, it happened. He didn't quite expect that. Well, it was just one of the few other things that blew his expectations about this game.

Since it was like that, that meant food would also be necessarily now.

"Kei, before I'm going, I'll transfer to you a bit of my Cor's. The food should satisfy our hunger here in the virtual world, so don't worry, and buy to your hearts contents, food, clothes, swords, whatever you like. Cooking, however, should also be possible, if I remember right."

Ayanokoji said, touching the materialized button and bringing five Frenzy Boar Meat's from his inventory to their apartment. Then, he put them in the fridge.

"Ah, Kiyotaka, you don't know, right? Chabashira-sensei explained to us all about that already when you weren't there." Kei explained.

"Ahahaha, I see," he answered, in full awkwardness.

In an instant, he transfered Kei 2.500 Cor's and walked away.

"See you until tonight or tomorrow morning," Ayanokoji said.

[Cor: 11.075]

While Ayanokoji was walking, he stopped at a market where food was sold and bought himself three panini's, each costing 12 Cor.

[Cor: 11.039]

He ate one immediately and admitted that they really tasted like food in real life. It really satisfied his hunger.

Without spending much time further, he decided to head out to the forest again.

But then something happened. He has gotten a message.

[Horikita: Ayanokoji-kun...]

[Ayanokoji: What's wrong?]

[Horikita: What's wrong? The whole situation is wrong. The fact that we die when our HP reaches 0. The fact that we are trapped inside a Death Game with an impossible task of defeating floor 100. That's all too much.]

[Ayanokoji: I see. Well, what do you intend to do? Are you just keep standing there and doing nothing, while a few percent of the players will definitely slaughter monsters and use these limited resources to their advantage?]

[Horikita: I-I don't know... How about you?]

[Ayanokoji: Why ask when you already know the answer?]

[Horikita: How about we form a party? I can surely be beneficial to you.]

[Ayanokoji: I doubt that. I don't want to be your caretaker.]

Ayanokoji, once again, got surprised. He didn't hear anything about a party at all. It was unfamiliar to him. Then again, it was because he only killed monsters and didn't take the time to explore the menu more than necessarily.

Also, a party didn't seem to be beneficial at all, in his perspective. He not only would be her caretaker but probably also needs to share with her his EXP.

There weren't any benefits at all, so he had naturally declined her offer.

[Horikita: Ayanokoji-kun... you are really cruel...]

[Ayanokoji: I'm just realistic, Horikita. For me to even consider your offer, you'd at least need to be level 5.]

After that, Horikita didn't answer anymore.

It was, however, just him speaking the truth. Horikita would drag him down.

Whether or not she would kill monsters was entirely up to her.

But if she didn't, then she would need to come down to the fact that she and his other classmates wouldn't have any sleeping place for the night.

At the very least, they needed to kill two <Frenzy Boars> to survive one night, with rather cheap food for ten Cor from the Inn.

If they couldn't even do that, then well, it'd be quite disappointing.

For now, Ayanokoji would simply slaughter monsters. But tomorrow, he would check all the features of the menu that he doesn't know of yet.

[27 Minutes Later]

Ayanokoji Kiyotaka arrived at the forest.

It was now 18.34 p.m. No one should be able to be here in their current levels, which meant that the whole forest with these plants were entirely his area. As to how long that would be was another question. He assumed that the ordinary players wouldn't think of laying their hands there, but as for the BetaTester's he was set sure that they might even come today.

They should have been already familiar with their attack patterns since they played it, and also about their weakness.

In other words, since he was definitely quite fast there, and he doubted whether they would come at level one here, he took the chance to kill all Monsters in the forest.

It didn't matter how long it'd take. In the end, it was simply his level that mattered in this world.

The higher the level, the more untouchable you are.

Ayanokoji, using his track skill to his advantage, saw a group of <little Nerpents>, one of them being the one he searched for, the one with the red fruit in top of the head.

Once he finished killing the group of five, he'd wait above the trees to ambush these monsters that should come to his location since he deliberately damaged the red fruit.

He observed and saw a total of 141 <little Nerpents>. For normal players, this situation would be horrific, but not for him.

--

TimeSkip

--

[19:11]

It took him longer than expected, but he prioritized not getting all too much damage, which is why he played more carefully around these monsters.

But he didn't find the Monster again with the red flower atop of its head.

It seems like the spawn rate for that monster seems to be low. He didn't know how much, but it should be definitely under 5%, if not much less.

He had, however, gained quite much from their encounter.

>Former Level:

[Level 7: 23.356/28.000]

[Cor: 11.075]

[HP: 1.050/1.350]

>Current Level:

[Level 8: 29.780/36.000]

[Cor: 19.105]

[HP: 1.050/ 1.700]

[Stats:]

[Strenght: (9)] - [Strenght: 10]

[Agility: (9)] - [Agility: 10]

[Vitality: (3)] - [Vitality: 4]

Even though he didn't increase his Vitality, his HP was still more than enough through the level ups. Ayanokoji, even though he had more than enough HP, decided on waiting until his HP is fully recovered. For that reason, he climbed on a tree high enough until no monster would be able to detect him.

He sat there quite relaxing, leaning the back of the head against the tree, while having his eyes slightly closed. He wasn't sleeping.

He was just resting. But to his surprise, his HP Bar was only recovering 3 HP each three seconds. He waited for three additional seconds before forming a conclusion of how long it'd take to recover his HP completely.

But it was again three HP, which, in return, meant that each minute he recovers 60 HP. To fully recover, he'd need to wait eleven minutes and twenty seconds for only 700 HP.

Even if it does seem like Ayanokoji being too cautious, you can never be cautious enough in this new world.

Somebody might intentionally lock monsters to him when he is at low health, resulting in a higher probability of danger and the aftermath of his death. Or it could be that someone might stab him in the back and use the hiding skill to their advantage to kill him when he's at low health fighting a group of large monsters again.

Ayanokoji had thought about many different scenarios, some of them with a lower probability than the other. But even as low as they might be, they still could happen.

His decision was final. He'd rest and try to minimize the damage he'd get from these monsters.

For that, he imagined inside of his mind how he would be fighting these monsters in large groups of hundreds without getting more than 200 to 300 HP reduced.

Ayanokoji continued with this tactic until it was 21:00 PM. It usually took him up to 35 – 40 minutes to kill groups of monsters from hundred and above.

During that time, from 19.23 PM, when he was finished resting, and 19.33 PM when he killed the <little Nerpent> with the red fruit, confronted with 132 monsters, he finished killing them at 20.11 PM.

With the time he needed to recover his HP, it took him five minutes and fifty seconds to recover 350 HP from his initial 1.700 HP.

Once again, he repeated his process. This time, it was about 109 monsters that took him 33 minutes. But he didn't immediately find them, which was a drawback for him.

At 20.52 PM, he finished, and his level has once again risen up a level.

Ayanokoji Kiyotaka definitely was currently the strongest player in SAO, but he had almost no knowledge regarding the game at all.

>Former Level when he killed 132:

[Level 8: 35.588/36.000]

[Cor: 26.365]

[HP: 1.450/1.700]

>Current Level:

[Level 9: 40.384/45.000]

[Cor: 32.360]

[HP: 1.550/1.900]

[Stats:]

[Strenght: (10)] - [Strenght: 11]

[Agility: (10)] - [Agility: 12]

[Vitality: 4] - [Vitality: 4]

Getting back up on the tree again, Ayanokoji planned on continuing his repetitive process. However, he heard in all sudden two sudden noises on the ground, estimatingly twenty meters away from his current location.

The two of them were talking.

"We'll need two <<little Nerpent's Ovule>> to complete the quest, Kirito."

"Yeah, it'll take a while until one of them with the red flower spawns, though. We haven't had enough luck yet, since the spawnrate of them is only 1%. All that we can do is to kill in the hope of one spawning for now. After that, we'll kill them until a second one spawns. One <<Anneal Blade>> for me, and one for you, Coper."

"Sure," he replied.

It seemed like these two were in search of the item that Ayanokoji was once again in possession of. He had once again gotten his hand on the <<little Nerpent's Ovule>> but there wasn't any great purpose of that sword anymore.

He might sell it.

"With the <<Anneal Blade>>, we should be able to use it until floor 3. It definitely gives us a great advantage on killing the monsters easier. It's good that we are the first ones to start the quest. Nobody besides us can now start the quest for the next remaining 24 hours, even when we finished it," Coper exclaimed, who was just like Kirito a BetaTester.

'Hold on, I completed the quest four hours ago. If you truly can not start the quest after 24 hours again once someone started and finished them, why were they able to do that? Could it be possible that the monsters and quests were after the announcement reset up to zero again.'

'Well, that's quite unexpected to hear.'

Ayanokoji used his hiding skill, just in case. He swapped it with his searching skill since it was from all of his skills on the lowest level currently.

After Kirito and Coper were coming closer and closer, he began to recognize the voice.

He didn't see the username Kirito at that time, but he knew his voice.

'It's that BetaTester from the very beginning, huh? I'll remember your name, Kirito, the BetaTester.'

Ayanokoji decided to follow them a bit. If he could, he wanted more information about this game, after all.

The two of them seem like BetaTester, so their information is quite valuable.

"What will you do after this quest, Coper?" Kirito asked.

"Hmm... let's see, I might do some of the hunting quests."

Kirito looked slightly surprised how their minds were quite alike. "You mean the <Frenzied Hunt> and the <Running Down Wolves> quest in the hunting camps, right? I see, I should do them myself too. But the drop rates aren't quite high. You need to kill at least thirty <Frenzy Boars> and <Dire Wolf's> to complete them and claim the reward. Besides, now that we are trapped here, everyone will aim for the <Frenzy Boars> and <Dire Wolf's>, so I doubt whether it'd be worth the trouble to wait that long for the monsters to respawn and then to kill."

"Hmm... you are kind of right. But it depends. Most players won't farm far too much of the outskirts of the village. Even if I have also gathered enough Frenzy Plant Nectar so I could deliver them thrice to the bar and earn 600 EXP."

'I see, so I should soon deliver my gathered items. It'd be far more beneficial since I've gathered quite the amount of items. But I could also give Kei some items so that she could, at the very least, reach level two.'

Ayanokoji, who was in thought and watched the two people under him, had gathered in that short timespan valuable information.

He should observe them further. He could always kill monsters, but could he always get valuable information about the game.

Without leaving any sounds at all, Ayanokoji jumped from one tree to another and followed them step by step.

He heard quite the interesting topics they were talking about. It was about a few spawn points, where monsters could occur more frequently, as well as other quests.

But after they talked a few minutes, they finally saw a hordes of monsters.

Kirito and Coper began killing the monsters continuously, but then it happened. A monster nearby, Kirito, spawned with the red flower atop of its head.

He knew he immediately had to kill the Monster since the more time passed, these monsters would become ordinary again.

But it didn't look like as if Coper was happy about Kirito's success of getting the <little Nerpent's Ovule> at all.

Instead, he looked quite jealous, in fact. Ayanokoji had watched them from above for a bit of time, but he was rather surprised that despite their low level, the two of them could defeat that many monsters.

Certainly, they didn't unlike him face hundred of them, but it was definitely surprising seeing that they could keep up with a group of five to seven monsters. Especially considering their low HP bar.

But even so, they were experienced players that happened to know about the attack patterns before, which shouldn't be a big surprise.

Coper, who was facing a <little Nerpent> with a certain distinctive feature, immediately used this chance and damaged the red fruit atop of its head.

Then, he used his hiding skill to hide before the group of monsters that would come now.

Kirito, realizing what his supposed party member did, couldn't help but shout in disbelief. "You!"

But what Coper didn't take into consideration is that they didn't rely on sight, but on the player's odor and noises.

Most of the arriving monsters began to target Coper, the one who tried to MP'K Kirito to steal his loot.

Kirito, realizing in the dire realization he was in, killed the very few monsters that were in front of him and fleed out of the forest to his fullest capabilities without looking back.

Coper, who was on the verge of dying, looked above, seeing Ayanokoji leaning against a tree watching him with an apathetic gaze, as if he was trying to study him admist the final moments of his life.

Coper muttered a few little words in the hope of the mysterious person above him helping him. "Please, help me, you up there! I'm begging you!"

But then, his avatar disappeared through the vine attack of one of the <little Nerpent's> present.

Ayanokoji had that same unfazed expression, as if nothing happened, even when a person in front of him died.

It didn't matter to him what happened to that guy or anyone else. He'd always prioritize his safety above that of any other.

It was just the way Ayanokoji was.

Even then, when someone died and a supposedly feeling of regret should be a very common occurrence, he didn't have any of it.

He didn't feel guilt.

Instead, he felt regret of not having the chance to listen to additional valuable information that the two of them could have provided if they didn't meet the monsters.

Ayanokoji, looking at the Monster that noticed him, simply sighing. "Hah, it's seems like it's time to slaughter again."

A total of 118 additional monsters became the victims of Ayanokoji on his very first day.

[Level 10: 45.576/66.000]

[Cor: 38.850]

--

"I'm back..." Ayanokoji said.

"Ayanokoji-kun..." Horikita, Ichinose, and Sakayanagi said.

Kei simply looked to the side whistling as if she hadn't done anything wrong.

"... Ah, hello..."

****

Chapter End

A/N: This concludes this chapter.

For those who might be wondering as to why the EXP to reach level 11 isn't 55.000, it is because I decided to increase the latter part of the formula by a hundred. I'll do that in the future, too, at levels 21, 31, and so on.

I'll think the next chapters will focus a bit more on the different characters.

For now, Ayanokoji is more than OP since it's only the first day, and he has already achieved this much.

Ayano is, however, still running with the starters equipment, despite being the wealthiest player, currently.

Kayaba must be really shocked...

Well, jokes aside, how did you find the chapter? Before any of you leave, I have an important question.

Which weapon do you think would suit Ayano the most?

I'm tending to the Katana since the attacks are fast and powerful, and it kinda would look better than a one-handed sword.

Well, that's all. I hope you liked the chapter.

Goodbye, have a great day.